1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a process and a device according to the precharacterizing portion of patent claims 1 and 11.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to enhance traffic safety, major automobile manufacturers, universities and institutions worldwide have carried out research in order to find process and means for recognizing the alertness or condition of the vehicle operator—in particular for recognition of conditions leading to attention deficits, such as fatigue—and for recognition of operator task loading and demands upon the operator, in order to optimally influence the operator. These efforts are made with the primary objective of informing the vehicle operator regarding his condition using various media (that is—acoustically, optically, haptically and olfactorally), or to warn the operator or even to resort to operator assistance systems to influence the vehicle dynamics.
With regard to the warning and information functions of such systems, it is conceivable that a number of the following parameters could be set up to be variable and therewith be designed to be adaptable depending upon the condition of the vehicle operator:                changing time of warning onset        multistage or stepped warnings according to the conceived urgency        change of the output medium and thereby change of the sensory organ being influenced        audio amplification and frequency change in the case of acoustic warning signals        intensity and frequency changes in the case of optical signals        amplification or reduction of tactile or haptic oscillations and feedback        suppression of lower priority warning signals and information        changing the feedback from the steering wheel (increasing or decreasing resistance to rotation)        movement of the braking, acceleration and steering initiation points.        
A warning and information system having such a design is known for example from the subsequently published DE 10103401 (WO 02/058962 A1). The disadvantage of such an adaptive system can however be, that the detection of the condition of the operator based on mechanistic recognition using varying sensor systems and the subsequent mode and manner of the output of the warning information generated therefrom may not always be well received by the vehicle operator and could in fact be irritating not only to the vehicle operator but also to the other vehicle occupants.